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Sinn Féin welcomes Marriage Equality Bill with “open arms”

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Equality, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD, has welcomed the Marriage Equality Bill with open arms today and commended all those who campaigned and marched for their rights.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn said:

“The 22nd of May 2015 was a day that changed lives forever. The result in favour of Marriage Equality was hard fought by equality champions along a journey that stretched back many years. It was they who changed lives that day.

“Those people who campaigned and marched for rights. Those people who faced discrimination and intimidation. Those people who were labelled second class citizens. Those people who stood up tall when others tried to bring them down on their knees. Those people, who knocked on doors, wore badges, spoke to their friends and built the movement for change and the movement for equality.

“Those people are people that I am so deeply honoured to call family, friends, comrades and fellow Irishmen and Irishwomen. They were ordinary people who carried out an extraordinary task.

“Sinn Féin welcomes this Bill to the floor of the House with open arms. It is a momentous occasion where we as a people come together to end a two tier system of marriage inequality. Marriage is about one thing; love, and a lasting commitment to honour love. Nobody should ever be denied that opportunity.

It’s quite difficult to sum up the magnitude of this decision and the foundation it has laid to build on this equality and expand it in terms of socio-economic rights to others at the margins of society. To stand in here to legislate for love; for marriage equality, is an honour.”